Fishmaster Trip Report - Gaula Flyfishing Season 2004

The season 2004 started with very good conditions, the water temperature varied between 8 and 11 degrees and already on the first week of season the fishermen caught some real monster salmon:16.0 kg, 10.8 kg, 10.0 kg, 9.0 kg and 6.7 kg. That 16 kg salmon was caught from Svingen pool and remained to be the biggest salmon caught on our Gaula Flyfishing beats year 2004. The June continued well and good number of big salmon between 7 and 11 kg were caught during the rest of the month.

During the July we had a very good conditions and steady run of all sizes of salmon from grilse to big ones as well. Most part of the salmon were medium sized salmon, weighing between 5 and 7 kilos. The water level was round normal and water temperature varied between 10 and 15 degrees. Fishermen enjoyed of good fly fishing in nice scenery. The biggest salmon of the month was caught from Gyllteigen pool and weighed 10,8 kg.

The August started exceptionally dry and warm and the water lewel dropped to a low but still we caught several nice salmon every week. We have some excellent pools for low water conditions as well, for example Bruahölen and Svingen tend to be excellent pools even lowest water levels. Thus the low and warm water doesn't seem to affect on our fishing so much.

During the last part of August we had some rain and colder weather conditions which resulted better fishing again. A good number of grilse and medium-sized salmon were caught during the two last weeks of the season.

During the season 2004 there has been caught 100 salmon and 19 seatrout, altogether 119 fish from our beatiful Gaula Flyfishing beats. That season can be described as a bit under medium season, our average is round 150 fish per season.

Gaula proved to be the second best salmon river in whole Norway in 2004 with total catch of 27,2 tons of salmon and seatrout.

Written by: Jouni Rauha